Grandma Update, Book, Movie, Music

I was going to go and visit Grandma last Wednesday (it's a really a pain when I write an entry but don't post it for a week, because then I have to go through and fix all the "todays" and "yesterdays") but didn't get there because stupid UPS insists on trying to deliver packages to apartments between the hours of 10:00 and 2:00. I do NOT understand why they are used so much. I used them to mail a pair of Chucks back to Converse and it was almost $11 vs the $5 it would have cost me at the post office. I was already there with a different pair of Chucks to mail back to zappos.com (they're the best, they actually sent me a packing slip so I could mail it for free – which is why I was at the UPS store), otherwise I would have been at the post office to begin with.

Anyway, Wednesday was the third attempt and the little yellow slip stated they were going to deliver between 2:00 and 5:00, so I had to be at home. I talked to her in the morning and she told me not to worry, she'd be fine. I had tried to call her for a few hours on Tuesday and the phone just rang and rang and rang. She was out gallivanting around the rehab place, i.e., she was in the dining room listening to some guy playing the guitar and singing songs. Then it was time for dinner, and she doesn't leave the dining room after dinner, she hangs out with the other women and chat until God knows what time.

When I called her on Wednesday (since I hadn't been able to get a hold of her on Tuesday) she had been up and cleaning out one of the drawers in her dresser, getting stuff together for my Mom to take home and getting a list of other stuff she wants from home. She told me that I don't have to call her every day, etc. Yeah, yeah, whatever, Shortstuff. I'm not sure I've told you all how darn cute she is, lately, have I?

Oh yeah, there was a meeting last week in which people from the rehab place all got together, I'm assuming with doctors, and discussed who needs to stay and who is doing well enough to go home. Another "oh yeah," Grandma's doctor wrote out a prescription two or so weeks ago stating she needed to stay, so she ended up only paying for about 5 days (or so she says, I think it was longer, actually).

Mom and the YS (there's a story there) took Grandma home on the previous Saturday for a visit. I guess they do that when it's getting close to time to go home to see how the person feels and how they get around their own house. Grandma said she had no trouble getting into the house (it's a decent sized step from the garage into the house), nor up the stairs to her bedroom, etc. And this is all good, because according to the outcome of the meeting, it sounds like Grandma is going home in a couple of weeks (next Wednesday, to be specific). The aunts from California are going to take two weeks each (I think), consecutively, using their family leave time in order to make sure Grandma's not alone. I'm not sure if the Oregon aunt is coming, too, because I don't know if they have the family leave time policy, as well.

Grandma also said that she's learning and doing lots in therapy although she wasn't sure about last Friday's & Saturday's therapy. It was OT, not PT, and on Friday they painted flowers on a little flower pot and then on Saturday they planted a flower in said flower pot. Grandma was kind of annoyed because she wasn't sure how that's going to help her get around. Grandma's not really into crafts, although she mentions semi-regularly, that she thinks it would be nice to take up knitting again. Maybe I'll see if she's serious and go over there one day and refresh her memory.

FWIG posted this a while back and I thought it contained interesting questions (it's amazing how far out of my way I'll go not to use a certain word that starts with "me" and ends with "me").

1. Who are your much loved Bands? Favorite songs by them?

Okay, who here can't name my favorite band? You either haven't been paying attention or are new, because I think I mention it every few months, just in case… ;-)

Joy Division – Atmosphere, Atrocity Exhibition, Heart and Soul, They Walked in Line, New Dawn Fades, etc.
The Crüxshadows – Kisses 3, Winter Born, Spectator, Go Away, Orphean Wing


2. Do you like your job? Could you do your boss' job?

Yes, I like my job. I like the people, I like being able to help them manage their workload. I could NOT do my boss' job and nor would I want to.


3. What is the first thing you would do if you won the jackpot? (I mean after you collect your winnings.)

Pay off my debt (which isn't massive, I don't think), buy my mother a better condo, put money aside for the nieces and nephews college, get new carpet for my apt.

Yeah, I know, I should buy a house, right? The problem is that I have never ever wanted a house. I hate mowing the lawn and gardening. I hate shoveling snow. I like knowing there are people nearby who might miss me if they didn't see me for a few days. Yes, I know I could hire people to do the gardening, shoveling, etc., but that's not the point, really.

I guess I'd invest the rest smartly. My former lottery winning dream was to travel the Champ Car circuit and attend every single race. We all know that's not even possible anymore.


4. Most annoying thing in the newspaper?

The incredibly bad grammar, the incredibly hideous, nasty, evil people who feel the need to comment and think they can say hateful things because they're anonymous.


5. Best line from a movie?

"I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me." Humphrey Bogart from In A Lonely Place.

April's Book and Movie List don't even require their own post...I read one book and watched one movie.

Nineteen-Eighty-Four by George Orwell - The Centennial Edition with a Foreword by Thomas Pynchon and an Afterword by Erich Fromm for a total of 357 pages - It's classic, everybody knows, generally, what it's about, but I had never read it. When people would look aghast at me that I hadn't read it, I would say, "My class read Animal Farm."

I also read 300 pages of another book, but I don't count a book until it's finished. I'll tell you all about it next month.

My one movie was Gosford Park (2002) - I DVRd this off IFC and I have to say that I quite enjoyed it. I read a review that said Upstairs, Downstairs meets Agatha Christie and while, yes, that definitely describes it, I kept thinking Upstairs, Downstairs meets Murder By Death, which if you haven't seen it, it's bloody hilarious! I must go and see if it's available at Netflix. It has been much too long since I've seen it.

I would definitely recommend both the book and the movie. Sad...so sad. I've already done better this month - two books read and two movies watched.

The Demise of Champ Car & Vegas Trip

I finally ordered my external hard drive (or whatever the bloody hell I just bought actually is) which means I can finally get my music off my computer and download all of my pictures starting with last August's Road America trip through the Maine Vacation and ending with the Vegas trip.

I am utterly and completely depressed. And the thing is I know that nobody (except for Rick in CT) will understand when I tell you why. Martha asked yesterday what was wrong and I just couldn't tell her, because I know she wouldn't get it. I told her that I probably wouldn't be going to any races this year because there probably weren't going to be any races and she had this look on her face like "Okay, so what." I just couldn't go into it as I was going to cry.

It looks like the long-simmering American open wheel racing feud is close to an end. There's talk of a "merger," but it's no merger, it's my guys losing to hated and despised TFG (Tony F***ing George) totally and completely. Champ Car is the inanimate entity I love most in this world. The "merger" news broke last Friday when I was in Vegas. I got a text message from Jim B saying "Told ya Cleveland wouldn't happen. Just sux. Oh well." I immediately text him back saying "WHAT??? I'm in Vegas, no news." Response: "Merger is official. Only lb, surfers and edm added 2 irl schedule. All teams will use irl cars. No panoz." My heart sunk as I told HRH. She got impatient and said, "Call him, quit that damn text messaging." Turns out the merger wasn't official, but was "very close." Then there were subsequent articles quoting one of the owners of CCWS as being upset with the leaks and how it was going to hurt the merger, blah blah blah. It was all I could do that morning not to cry.

We left a little later than we had planned for Zion because this was just too important not to get as many details as possible. We stopped to get gas just outside Zion and HRH wandered through the convenience store and nothing was appealing to her. You have to understand that whenever we go to a race, HRH damn near buys out the store of snacks as she searches for things she can't get in Canada. First she looked at sunflower seeds, but said, "No, I want chocolate." But when we went to the chocolate aisle, she didn't want anything there either. I said, "You're too depressed." She looked at me with mild surprise, and said, "You're right. I don't want anything."

Going to races has been such a part of my life for the past damn near 20 years that I can't even begin to imagine what I'm going to do with my vacation time. I already submitted time off for the Cleveland and Road America races, but I won't be taking those days off if there are no races. How am I going to see my friends?

Trust me, I won't be going to any IRL/IndyCar races, and neither will my friends. No way in freaking hell. There's nothing about that series that appeals to me from their freaking traitor owners to the asshole who started it to their bitch of a female driver to their stupid "fly-into-the-air-for-no-apparent-reason" cars which have killed at least two drivers, seriously injured at least one, given a myriad of drivers lower back fractures and damn near killed Mario Andretti (stupid Michael).

There's nothing absolute yet as CCWS owners keep saying they will have races this year, but one car owner has already defected to the IRL and that's definitely not good as we only had 17 cars in the field with his two cars. 15 is definitely not acceptable. I got an e-mail from a friend who is also a CCWS pit official and he said that it's just a matter of time and that he's 90% certain there will be no CCWS this year. He's supposed to call me the second he hears anything definitive, but I'm preparing for the worst and trust me there is nothing worse than TFG winning. I hate him even more than I hate Dumbya.

Other than the crappy open wheel racing news, Vegas was fabulous. Actually, Vegas was Vegas, it was all our trips to nature that were fabulous. Friday was Zion (pictures next week) with HRH, LB and his GF. Saturday was hiking at Red Rock Canyon with LB & his GF. HRH doesn’t hike. At one point when we were hiking this narrow little trail over a stream and through picker bushes and brambles, I said to the lB, "HRH would have hated this." LB sarcastically said, "Oh really? I was going to name the trail after her." I saw a coyote less than five feet away from me. We both stopped dead and regarded each other warily. Sadly, neither the LB or GF were anywhere near me, so they didn't get to see it. And I didn't move quickly enough to get a picture. I tried to call the LB over, but I didn't want to yell and he didn't hear me stage-whispering his name. After I told him about it, he went to where I saw it and went searching, but it had probably been a good 3-4 minutes, so the coyote was long gone. On our way out of the area, we finally saw a couple of the wild burros. LB had seen a whole herd of them once before (in his six visits to RRC), but he had stated at the beginning of the day that he wanted to see wildlife, so he was happy to see the burros. They were very cute.

Sunday was the best day. All four of us took off for the Valley of Fire which is so incredibly beautiful that it's hard to describe and I'm positive that my pictures are not going to do it justice once I get them uploaded. LB, GF and I rock scrambled all over the place while HRH watched and got worried that we were going to fall. It was so unbelievably fabulous! The most amazing thing was that we actually had HRH walking through nature (she was under the mistaken belief that snakes would still be hibernating, but it was a warm, sunny day) until LB told her that no, the snakes could be out and about. Then she was done. She's so funny. Everybody declared that we had to go back again as there were lots of places we didn't have time to visit. I ran out of room on my camera which is just another reason we have to go back.

I got home super late on Monday night and spent Tuesday in a fog. I went to bed at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night and was awake three hours later, which actually had been the theme of the weekend, because HRH just could not sleep more than 3 hours at a time. I didn't sleep particularly well in Vegas either, so I'm hoping to catch up on my sleep this weekend. Nobody, but nobody, better call me Saturday before noon!

Ah, Saturday. One of my friends asked me to go with her to see Linkin Park on Saturday night. She's being an ultra-sweet Mom and is taking her two daughters to see them and asked me to go with her, so she's not sitting alone. She got them tickets in Row 11 and we're in Row 13 right behind them. I borrowed a CD from a work friend so that I have a clue what I'm going to hear on Saturday. It's okay stuff, although I'm not sure I'd buy a CD of theirs. I just hope it's not so loud that the music is distorted and stupid. I have no problem with loud (it is a concert, after all), but there's no reason to be stupid about it. I'll let you know how it goes.

The One Thing (Saturday Night in the City)

Beth over at the Gardening Knitter came up with some questions that she wanted her readers to answer. It's harder than it first appeared.

The One Thing


1. If you could recommend only one book for others to read, what would it be and why?

I always say that my favorite book is The Eight by Katharine Neville, and while I always recommend it, it doesn't seem deep enough for this question, mainly because the "why" response would be because "I really liked it." And that's kind of lame.

Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity by Bruce Bawer. I chose this book because there are so many anti-Christians out there (and I don't mean simply being agnostic or atheist or even another religion) who think that the Religious Right is what Christianity is all about and I disagree completely. I wanted to mail this book to my BAB anonymously, but he would never read it because it's written by a gay man. And we all know how the Religious Right feels about "the gay."

2. What is your one favorite song? Why?

Atmosphere by Joy Division. It used to be Madam Butterfly by Malcolm McLaren, but as much as I love that song, I have decided that I couldn't listen to it over and over and over and over which I can definitely do with Atmosphere.

3. What is the one thing that is the biggest time saver in your life?

Oy, this is hard. I have no time savers, really. I don't have a dishwasher or a garbage disposal. I don't even have curbside garbage pick-up. I'm going to show myself to be a true Detroiter with this answer: my car. I like to walk to locations which is why I live where I live. I can walk to the fruit market, the pharmacy, Michael's (in case I'm desperate for yarn), the beer store, the bar, even the grocery store as long as I'm not buying the place out as it's a bit more than a mile, but if I'm in a hurry I will jump in the car.

4. What is one gadget you couldn't live without and why?

My alarm clock. Whereas I usually wake up before the alarm goes off, I won't get up until the alarm actually goes off. I'm generally quite able to go back to sleep.

5. If you could recommend one film for others to see, what would it be and why?

To Live - I remember this film as portraying China as it is, and not as it wishes to be portrayed. The director Zhang Yimou (also responsible for Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, The Story of Qiu Ju, The Shanghai Triad and The Road Home) was banned from making movies for a number of years after this one (although Shanghai Triad had been released in that timeframe because it was already done) because of its truism. He also did Hero with Jet Li and The House of Flying Daggers but I haven't seen those. The link above has a great review of it – much better than I could write.

6. What is the one cure or preventative measure you believe in and for what ailment?

Gargling with salt water for a sore throat. Until my doctor recommended it with the correct proportions I always hated doing it because I used too much salt. You're only supposed to use a ¼ t of salt per one cup of warm water.

7. What is the best advice you've ever received and from whom?

"When you get older, you'll vote Republican." From the Former Father when he was disgusted that I was such a liberal. That is enough to keep me from ever voting Republican. ;-)

8. If you could introduce the entire world to just one band/musical artist, who would it be and why?

Joy Division, of course. They are my favorite band of all time and I have read every book I can find on them. I own every CD (I have never collected vinyl, otherwise I'm sure I'd be in serious trouble – money and space wise) that they have ever put out, including the boxset. I remember the first book I read about Joy Division and it used a word I didn't recognize to describe the music, so I looked it up. The word was dyspeptic, which means "gloomy." The funny thing is that I didn't find the music depressing or gloomy at all. One day after work when I worked at the University, I was hanging around the radio station because I didn't feel like going home as I had a headache and was just depressed (this was probably 1990 or 91 after I had broken up with the cheating ex-). I remember MVK playing a Joy Division song which made me smile. Just hearing a JD song played by someone other than me makes me happy. I know they're not everybody's cup of tea, but I think everybody should at least give them a try, if they've never heard them.

9. If you could convince others you meet or know of one thing, what would it be?

This one is easy!! I want to convince everybody that Champ Car is the best racing series in the world and that the IRL and TFG (Tony George) are evil. I can tell you the entire history of CART/Champ Car vs the IRL and TFG, but I won't bore the ever-living crap out of you here, because more than likely your eyes will glaze over and you'll not read the rest of my post. If anybody wants to know, I will gladly tell all, however.

10. What do you believe is one of the greatest ways of wasting money and how do you combat it?

I have to agree with Beth on this one. Commercial cleaning products. I have major issue with chemical smells, so I don't buy most of these products. I clean my bathroom with rubbing alcohol (kills germs), a toothbrush, and Zud (when I have rust stains – which is pretty often considering the color of the water in my apt. can be pretty orange). Beth has a lot more homemade recipes, so go and see her (it was a number of months back, but maybe she'll link for us).

Future Ex-Girlfriend

I got tagged by Fermi to list my ten favorite things that start with "K" about two weeks ago and I'm finally getting around to it. It's even worse when you realise I volunteered for the tagging. I did this same game last year with the letter "L."

My excuses are myriad: 1) Justin's No Hitter begged me to blog about it. 2) I was busy on Thursday getting ready for my weekend trip to Austin. 3) I was gone Friday - Sunday in Austin. 4) Yesterday was just busy, besides me being very tired from the 12 hour ordeal that getting home was on Sunday.

Austin was cool (actually, it was hot and extremely humid). I went for a wedding along with a number of other Michigan friends, so it was one big party weekend, except for the airport on Sunday and even then, it would have been worse if there hadn't been a good nine of us affected by the Dallas-Fort Worth airport power outage.

Friday was a pizza party at the bride & groom's house where I ate so much pizza it wasn't even funny. Saturday we could have gone to help set up for the wedding, but the alternate plan was going to Waterloo Records. A trip to an ultra cool record store beats out cleaning a bar and decorating it for a wedding.

When I walked in the door I felt the same way I did the first time I walked into The World's Greatest Yarn Store - completely overwhelmed. I immediately found DIY: Do It Yourself about the Rise of Independent Music After Punk. I found this fascinating as I had just finished reading about it in this book: Rip It Up and Start Again. There was also a CD of American Hardcore, but saw there was a DVD of it, so I decided I would rent the DVD from Netflix to see if I need the album. Due to the same book mentioned earlier and the Ian Curtis book from last month, I was on a mission to find The Idiot by Iggy Pop and Low by David Bowie. Although the Sex Pistols are normally given all the credit for a good number of the postpunk bands, these two albums are listed as the ones that most inspired people to want to make music. The Pistols just gave them the wherewithal to try. I also picked up Chairs Missing by Wire, which was one of the original postpunk bands about which I had read in the book.

I started out in the New section and the only Low they had was a Japanese import for $27. Uh no! They did have The Idiot new as well. Then I found found the Used section. Oy vey. Luckily, Low & The Idiot were available used, so that was very exciting. I found a bunch of other Iggy which I didn't have so I grabbed those. Then Rick said, "Did you see the boxsets?" ARGH!!! I behaved myself, but only because I stopped before I got too far into it. Then Rick said, "Did you see this?" NO!!!! "This" was this 70s punk boxset. Yeah, you know it. I had to get it. I put the extra Iggy Pop CDs back, keeping only The Idiot. I put back the Talk Talk, as well.

Then when I'm standing in line to pay for my booty, GtG handed me Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins saying I had to have it. And then in a fit of generosity I picked up TWO postcards for Blue Meany.

Okay, now on to the actual post of the day:

Kaleidoscope – I absolutely love kaleidoscopes, but they have to be the real ones, not those icky fake stupid fly eyes ones. They have to have the little bits of colored glass (or plastic) that move as you turn the tube. I found one at FAO Schwartz in Vegas two years in their old-fashioned tin toy department. It wasn't expensive and it sits on my nightstand. I found out that my BIL makes them, but he hasn't made me one yet. I think I'll need to nag him.

Kabob - When I lived in San Francisco there was a vegan restaurant near the apartment which had these incredible Zen Kabobs made from seitan. They were so fabulous that when the restaurant closed to focus on their bakery (you might have eaten their cookies if you flew United a few years back) TAS and I went a couple of times the last week to indulge.

Kahlo - I never had an overarching interest in Frida Kahlo until I saw the movie and then went to her house in Coyoacan in Mexico City. Art is so much more interesting to me when I know what the artist was thinking or feeling. My mom was so interested after the trip that she's taken to buying books about Frida.

K - The symbol for strikes in baseball. After last week's no-hitter and Justin's 8 strikeouts, I decided to add it to the list. I do not like the "K" when it's my guys striking out.

Kamehameha - I learned about King Kamehameha way back in grade school and for some reason his name stuck with me my whole life. I couldn't tell you anything about him now without doing a google search, but I know I found him fascinating when I was young.

Karnak - I've never been to Karnak but I have grand dreams of getting back to Egypt and seeing everything I didn't see the first time around.

Keaton (Buster) - I never really knew anything about Buster Keaton until I saw Benny & Joon. Johnny Depp's portrayal of Sam intrigued me, so I ended up renting a bunch of Buster Keaton movies which I quite enjoyed.

Khufu (Cheops) - More ancient Egypt, but I actually not only saw his pyramid, but went inside it. He was apparently quite the bastard, I just like his pyramid.

knit - Duh! It's all I do. Remember, if you need a scarf, let me know. I have you covered. I'm already working on scarves for the Christmas craft show season.

kohlrabi - This is a very popular vegetable when my family (extended) has a veggie tray for get togethers. It goes quickly. I've never had any way but raw. I need to buy some for myself.

My Life Story in Song (according to my iPod)

Heather posted this survey and I figured what the heck (while I work on my favorite ten things that start with the letter "K" – I'm up to one, so far).

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend your cool...


Opening Credits:
Love to Hate You – Erasure

Waking Up:
Imagination – Erasure (see, damn iPod is still doing it – playing two songs by the same band right in a row, or occasionally with another band's song in between. And I have 1289 songs on this sucker))

First Day at School:
This Offer is Unrepeatable – Elvis Costello with the Brodsky Quartet from The Juliet Letters

Falling in Love:
Methods of Dance - Japan

Fight Song:
Weight of the World – Erasure (now, really, this is ridiculous. I love Erasure, as it's obviously on my iPod, but as a percentage, there are just not that many of their songs on it.)

Breaking Up: (I should have started this earlier so that my Opening Credits song was here instead)
N.W.O. (New World Order) – Ministry

Prom:
Tomorrow Started – Talk Talk

Mental Breakdown:
Believe – Voltaire

Driving:
She's My Best Friend – Black

Flashback:
Dead Man's Party – Oingo Boingo

Getting Back Together:
Biko – Peter Gabriel

Wedding:
Gentlemen Take Polaroids – Japan (Okay, not only the same band as just a few songs back, but the same bloody album. And weird, but Japan doesn't show up in my list of Artists.)

Birth of Child:
Superman (It's Not Easy) – Five For Fighting

Final Battle:
Face The Change – INXS

Death Scene:
Here It Comes Again - Black

Funeral Song:
Means To An End – Joy Division

End Credits:
Eternal Odyssey – Delerium

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you want to play along, go for it.

Crazy Eights

I've been tagged by Fermi to list eight facts about myself. I don't remember if I'm supposed to list things you don't know or not, but here goes.

1. I have two fused cervical disks. Back in 2000, I started working for my present company after returning from San Francisco and figured I was young enough to go 3 months without health insurance. Ha ha!! I'm so funny. Not so much. Thankfully, my pain started w/in the first month when I could still sign up for the "pay for yourself mostly insurance." It's really cool to be in a new job when the pain starts because crying at your desk daily is a good way to meet people (not really). For a solid month I couldn't sleep from the pain, so crying at my desk was pretty reasonable, I think. I had my MRI the Wednesday before Labor Day weekend. I got the phone call from my doctor Thursday night around 9:00 saying "Your disk is almost touching your spinal cord. Call this doctor tomorrow for an appt." Needless to say, there were more tears. I cancelled my trip to MA for my friend Rick's wedding as the whole "disk touching your spinal cord" freaked me out. Got an appt. with a neurosurgeon for Tuesday whereupon I scheduled the surgery for the following Monday (aka Mom's b-day - I'm such a fabulous daughter, I moved to SF on her b-day and I scheduled a surgical diskectomy & fusion for her b-day). No wonder she prefers the YS, eh? My surgery was scheduled for 1:30 but didn't happen until 9:30 p.m. I woke up in recovery pain free after my most beloved neurosurgeon (if you need one, let me know, because I highly recommend him) fused C5 & C6 disks.

2. I'm fairly obsessive. The YS has said that it's a good thing I've never tried drugs because she thinks I'd be addicted. I don't agree because the few legal drugs I've tried have done nothing for me (i.e., vicodin, Tylenol 3s, Percoset). She thinks this because since I learned to knit, I knit fairly constantly. I don't think it's an obsessive thing, so much as an excuse to watch TV w/o feeling like a complete slacker. But if I become interested in something I do like to do a lot of research on it. Example: My love of Joy Divison has me reading every book I can find on them. I do the same thing with Mexican history, ancient Egyptian history, Champ Car, Hitchcock, music, mountain climbing, etc.

3. I hate seeing my cats stoned, so they very rarely get catnip. When I moved to SF, I gave Zapata a tranquilizer prescribed by the vet. Tikal couldn't have one because they discovered he had a heart murmur. Seeing Zapata all drugged up just broke my heart. She couldn't jump up on the bed or move well at all. She fell trying to jump on the bed. It was horrible. I have catnip, but Igor and Boris seem to get a little feisty on it and I hate to see them fighting, so although it's in the house, they don't get to indulge very often.

4. I'm a redhead, but not a stereotypical redhead in that I don't have a short fuse. I'm pretty hard to upset/piss off, but once I'm there, oh boy. Look out!

5. I have a B.A. in Economics and International Studies (Spanish, Finance and Latin American studies). I love Latin American history and the language of Spanish, itself, but can you really picture a Kathleen with red hair getting a job using Spanish? Yeah, not so much. For the record, I make an excellent secretary.

6. Speaking of being a secretary, although I'm not one now technically, I type over 90 wpm. I love typing. Probably because I generally like things at which I excel. Don't try me at computer type games, I suck.

7. I have a fairly impressive CD collection, but nothing compared to some people I know. I could count them for you, but have better things to do than that. I would say somewhere between 700 and 1000 CDs. I also have a decent DVD collection, although nothing close to my CD collection. We won't discuss my book collection which rivals the CD collection.

8. I'm the scarf-knitting queen. You want a scarf, you let me know because I knit like a fiend, but only things that are squares or rectangles. I have plans to knit a sweater, but I'm scared of messing it up. And then finishing the knitting part and then finding out that the back doesn't line up properly with then front when I go to "finish" it, i.e, sew it together.

Tigers at Tampa Bay Rays (apparently they've lost the Devil)

The weekend was a bust noise-wise. Not that I'm complaining, trust me. Friday and Saturday were quiet, not because Crave has discovered how to be good neighbors, but because the weather was crappy. Sunday night was good, weather-wise, but I went out dancing, so I have no clue what they did that night. It was way past 2:30 a.m. when I got home. I need to give my neighbors the phone number to the Night Commander's desk of the police department, so when I'm not home (a rarity), they can call and complain.

The decibel reader meter doohickey is no good against the blasted radio control boats across the street. The thingie only reads noise level, not the high-pitched-ness of the bloody boats. Schneider told me he's made signs so that we can picket them. Apparently the signs read "Go home!" and "Leave us in peace." I figure I better find out if we can do that or if we need a permit. We don't need tickets. I moved into these apartments back in 1989, so we're going on 18 years of this crap and it's only getting worse. Back in the beginning, I only remember them on the weekends. This 7-day a week, all freaking day crap is wearing on all of us. Today I sat outside to decibel check them out and they barely reached 79 which I'm sure isn't loud enough to complain, but as I walked in the front door, I flipped them off. Yeah, I know, it was an exceptionally mature thing to do, but I'm telling you, they SUCK!!!

I learned something important this morning (let's hope I remember). After you apply Icy Hot to the various areas of your body that are sore because you're really too damn old to be out dancing for five straight hours and wipe your hands with a tissue, the best thing to do is THROW THE TISSUE OUT!!! For some reason, I left it on my desk and then went to the restroom to wash my hands. When I got back to my desk, my allergies were acting up, so I grabbed a tissue and blew my nose. Yup, you guessed it. I grabbed the tissue with Icy Hot on it. Talk about clearing out your sinuses. I highly recommend NOT doing that.

Sunday mornings as I get ready for church, I listen to Time Warp on 89X with Christina. Last Sunday she announced that she was going to be spinning at my old bar Memorial weekend Sunday. I called DWD & Miss Anne to see if they were up for it. DWD said it depended on family obligations as he had been out of town on business for almost two weeks straight and he's pretty responsible for his mother and his grandpa. Miss Anne took a few days to get a hold of, but when I did, she had a nasty cold, so I didn't expect her to make it. Sure enough, her cold got worse and DWD was busy with family stuff, so I went alone, knowing that Pamela was definitely going to be there. I got there right at 9:00 as I like to dance on a non-crowded dance floor.

What is it about gay men and dance remixes? Christina's DJ partner is gay and bloody hell, he loves ten minute dance remixes. I friggin' hate them!!! If a song is a three minute song, there is no reason on earth it needs time filled with some lame bassline added to it. To me that does not make it more danceable. In fact, I become bored with the beat and keep wishing for the song to end. Now, mind you, I'm not adverse to dancing to long songs, one of my favorites is This Corrosion by The Sisters of Mercy and it's almost 12 minutes long, but it's not the same beat for five minutes!

Now, if you're a DJ and you're being paid to do an 80s night, it might be nice to have updated your collection. I got there right at 9:00 in order to ask for Atmosphere by Joy Division which the old DJ (a good friend) simply refused to play. He said it was too slow and nobody would dance to it. My argument was always, nobody is going to dance at this hour but me anyway!!! Why not play what I want? But he never did. I figured I'd try this DJ, for all the good it did me. So, I ask and he said, "I only have that on vinyl." *sigh* I sit for a few seconds and then ask for Madame Butterfly by Malcolm McLaren. "I only have that on vinyl." ARGH!!!

He was playing some bloody DePeche Mode remix (mind you, I love DePeche Mode, it's the remix issue), but I went out there and started to dance. The next song was a remix and I'm bored dancing to it, but I'm there to dance. I came up with songs that I thought he might have (Echo & the Bunnymen, Higher Hell or The Cutter, Bauhaus, Love & Rockets, Go! by Tones on Tail, and No Pain, No Slogan). While I'm writing them down, a guy walks up and says "Hey! For old times sake, can you play Swamp Thing?" I nodded and said, "Yes, that'll work." in agreement. Guess what the answer was. Yup, only on vinyl.

Within a few songs, he plays No Pain, No Slogan, so I can't complain too much, right? Christina shows up by 10:00 (not that I knew what she looked like before that night) and starts her set with Isolation by Joy Division, followed by Dominion/Mother Russia by The Sisters of Mercy and then a few more songs. I was dancing my little heart out! Then she blew it with a New Order song. I will dance to crap I hate to save my spot on the dance floor, because, in case you couldn't figure it out, it's all about dancing. I figured out though that I could leave the stage and still get my spot back, so I went over to talk to her. That morning she had talked about the Ian Curtis (lead singer/lyricist of Joy Division) movie that premiered at Cannes last week and I wanted to talk to her about it. I told her about the book I had just finished and she was intrigued enough about it to write the title down.

A bunch of old friends showed up and it was a good night. I literally danced from 9:05 to 2:00 a.m. (that included two nasty New Order songs - don't ask me, I have no clue) and a whole lot of great stuff. I've always bitched that it seems that Christina plays the same stuff every Sunday morning which is ridiculous when you realise she's working with the years (1977 to 1990-something), but she did such a great job on Sunday night that I might have to cut her some slack. At the end of the night, she thanked me for the tip on the book and I thanked her for the great dancing.

I just hope my muscles give up their bitching soon, because I haven't slept well the last two nights I'm in such pain. One of these days I will figure out that I'm too old to dance like I used to, but not yet. I might be moaning and groaning all day long, but it was totally worth it.

Tearing

I borrowed this from Heather.

MOST PLAYED SONG IN ITUNES: This is hard actually to judge, because Monday I downloaded a bunch of new CDs that I got and so I took a bunch of stuff off my poor 8 only gig Nano to put my new Voltaire CDs on it. I checked iTunes on my MacBook and it says that Freedom by The Housemartins had been played the most times at 20. That makes no sense to me but okay, I'll go with it.

MOST PLAYED CD: I've been on a Voltaire kick of late, but I think Boo Hoo by Voltaire got played more than The Devil's Bris.

10 SONGS YOU CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF:
1) Atmosphere – Joy Division
2) The Vampire Club - Voltaire
3) Dear God - XTC
4) China – Tori Amos
5) Uncertain Smile – The The
6) Mad World – Tears for Fears
7) Like A Prayer – Bigod 20
8) Swamp Thing – The Chameleons UK
9) Coil Operated Doll – The Dresden Dolls
10) Can't Get Used to Losing You – The English Beat

LAST CD YOU BOUGHT: Um, bought…as in paid for? Or when they arrived? Because I bought four Voltaire CDs (Zombie Prostitute, Live!, Almost Human, Then and Again) from Projekt Records last week, but they arrived on Monday, whereas I went to an honest to goodness CD store (independently owned, thank you very much) on Saturday and bought Grinderman (not in love with it yet), LC & Live from London (which I can't find at allmusic.com, so I'm wondering if I got the title right) by The Durutti Column, and Money for All by Nine Horses (and David Sylvian).

LAST CONCERT: Iggy & The Stooges, BABY!!! Oh, wait, unless we're talking any musical concert, it was the DSO last Friday playing Mahler's Symphony #2: The Resurrection.

LAST SONG YOU HEARD: You're Gone – Del Amitri from Waking Hours

FIRST SONG ON YOUR iPod: …About A Girl – Voltaire from Boo Hoo

Before Monday with the great change of iPod music, it had been Supernaut by 1000 Homo DJs.

LAST SONG ON YOUR iPod: Zombie Prostitute – Voltaire from Zombie Prostitute

TEN CDs YOU COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT:
1) Symphony #5 – Gustav Mahler
2) Symphony #7 – Dmitri Shostakovich
3) Heart & Soul – Joy Division (I totally cheated on this one as it's their boxset.)
4) Press Eject & Give Me The Tape - Bauhaus
5) Floodland – Sisters of Mercy (I need to dance)
6) Gone to Earth – David Sylvian
7) Soundtrack to My Fair Lady (I'd prefer the movie soundtrack, but I have the play)
8) Helmut Lotti Goes Classic II
9) A Million in Prizes – Iggy Pop
10) Total Madness: The Very Best of Madness – Madness
(That was hard! And can you tell I got tired of linking?)

NEXT CD YOU WANT TO BUY: Snow Borne Sorrow by Nine Horses (side project for David Sylvian)

Holiday on the Moon

I have so much to tell you about Vegas, but I'm afraid that has to wait a little longer because Friday night I went to see The Stooges. They're touring supporting their new album, The Weirdness, which grows on you after a few listenings, even though it got panned by the critics. Who pays attention to critics anyway?

I bought the tickets not knowing who was going to go with me, but knew this was a concert I did not want to miss. I saw their first concert in Detroit in over 30 back in 2003 (it was originally scheduled for the night of the Great Blackout which you can enjoy for yourself on the DVD which I, of course, own) and was so overwhelmed by it that when Iggy showed up on stage bare-chested and in skintight jeans barely hanging on for dear life (the jeans, not Iggy) that I started to cry. I was a little embarrassed by the emotion until my good friend Glen said, "Kathleen, there were 50-year-old men in the audience that night who cried." I was able to hold on to my emotions this time and when Iggy took the stage looking just like he did that hot August night 3.5 years ago, I simply screamed like any other insane fan. In fact, however many days later, my throat is still a tad sore from all the screaming I did that night.

The whole night was incredibly fabulous! I begged my friend Miss Anne to go with me as The Libertarian's view of The Stooges' music was that it wasn't music and why on earth did it ever get made. Whatever. Miss Anne really wanted to go, so she was excited that I had a ticket and was willing to wait until whenever for her to pay me for the ticket. I told her I didn't care if she paid me $5 a month, I wanted to go with someone who wanted to go. She showed up at my house and I laughed. We had both chosen our 3-D Reunion shirt (mine was a tank top, hers a T-shirt), but I wasn't going to change, so we went looking like twins and didn't care! In fact, we got both got stopped by people saying, "Hey, I used to go to 3-D. It was a cool place."

We were supposed to meet friends of ours who were driving in from Chicago (they also had tickets to the Sunday Stooges' show in Chicago) at the Town Pump but they were running late and it was crowded, loud and very smoky, so we told them we'd just meet them at the Fox. We ended up talking to this guy outside the Town Pump and it turned out that he was driving home from work and saw the marquee and stopped and bought himself a ticket (only single seat tickets were available). He was cool and alone, so he asked if he could hang with us. We're friendly folk, so we said No problem. As you can probably imagine, there was great people watching in the lobby of the Fox with all the old punks. There were a good number of Grande Ballroom t-shirts being worn. In fact, our friend from Chicago showed up in hers, but she saw us, she said, "I almost wore my 3-D t-shirt, too." Great minds think alike!

I bought two extremely over-priced T-shirts, but they were so cool, I had to! It was so nice being around old punks, I just feel so at home with them - people who listen to the same music I do and don't think I'm weird for it. I saw a guy in a leather jacket with this picture of Ian Curtis painted on the back, the same picture I have of Ian painted on the back of my jean jacket. I would have, of course, talked to him, except that I was in line buying my t-shirts and wasn't about to lose my place in the mob. I was as excited as a little kid at Disneyland being there. After I bought my T-shirts, I had to tell Miss Anne and our new friend Pete all about the Joy Division jacket. Our new friend Pete then pulled out his phone to display the song Transmission as his ringtone. If you know me, you know that had me freaking out just a bit. He told me where he got it and that I could get Atmosphere (my all time favorite Joy Division song) as well. You know I'm doing that! Good-bye Funeral March of a Marionette (aka the Hitchcock theme), Hello Joy Division!

We missed the opening act, Powertrane, as people watching seemed like a better option as nobody had heard of the band. With my luck, they'll go on to be the next big band I've never heard of and I'll be kicking myself that I missed the chance to see them. But I didn't care, I was having fun talking to my friends. The Chicago friends are also race fans, so they asked about Vegas and I told them how cool it was (oh yeah, I'll tell you all about it after I download my pictures) and they think they might join the fun next year. After that it was time to head to our seats. Chicago friends and our new friend Pete had main floor, but Miss Anne and I had balcony (I prefer balcony, generally, unless, of course, I have seats in the first four rows or something close). I had my binoculars so we were all set.

I saw a guy from work (which was a bit of a surprise as this place kind of defines "conservative") and yelled his name. He was as surprised as me to see someone from work, but he smiled and waved.

The Stooges came out with zero fanfare. All of a sudden, there they were and Iggy was singing Loose (supposedly they did Down on the Street next, but I missed it somehow which is strange since I know that song really well). The third song of the night was "I Wanna Be Your Dog" which had everybody on their feet. And that was the last time 99% of the crowd sat down which is saying something when you think that the average age of the crowd was close to 50. The Freep (the Detroit Free Press, as it's more commonly known) had TWO reviews of the show in Saturday's paper. Iggy, who turns 60 on Saturday, stage dived (dove?) during I Wanna Be Your Dog which shows a lot of faith in his aging fans, I think. During Real Cool Time, fans swarmed the stage and at the end the lead fan yelled "Iggy and the Stooges! Iggy and the fucking Stooges! Iggy and the fucking Stooges!" into the mike. I turned to Miss Anne and said, "That sounded EXACTLY like the guy who did that during the Pine Knob concert (oh yeah, we're not allowed to call it Pine Knob anymore, it's the DTE Energy Concert Center, or some such corporate bullshit)." I mentioned it to Chicago friend and she totally agreed with me, as did the Freep's reviews. I didn't think that the fans being on stage seemed staged, although it's not unexpected as Iggy kind of encourages it. He is smart in that he has a guy guarding him from all the insane fans while he dances and writhes his way across the stage while singing.

I haven't quite figured out how Iggy keeps his jeans on as he wears them really low-slung but he managed it that night. The guy in front of us mentioned after the concert that he was at a concert where Iggy was not so successful in keeping his pants on. As much as I love Iggy, I'm not sure I need to see that. I was at a concert of The Cramps where Lux Interior got a little overzealous with his broken wine bottle (he broke it himself after he was done drinking from it) and slit his black spandex pants ALL THE WAY up which I'm pretty sure he didn't mean. Anyway, as I like to say, "I saw way more of Lux Interior that night than I really needed to."

I'm never ever happy with the length of a concert, so I was a little disappointed when the house lights came on, even if they were expected. If The Stooges are coming to your town, I highly recommended getting tickets to the concert. They put on a GREAT live show. And it's a little like experiencing living music history. I kind of wish I had written this on Saturday when I was still higher than a kite from the energy and emotion of the night, as I don't think my enthusiasm for that night as come out in my writing.

As the long-haired fan screamed, "IGGY AND THE FUCKING STOOGES!!!"

You Take Me Up

I know it’s been a while, but I got some new responsibilities at work and they keep me very busy. I’m not complaining as being busy helps the day go by much more quickly, but it does mean that I don’t have time to write an update or an e-mail. I don’t even really have time to read everybody’s blogs but when I get bored with the latest project I take five minutes just to clear my head.

It’s already march 6 and I haven’t regaled you with my books and movies of February, so that’s what you’re going to get today. I did much better reading wise in February than I did the previous two months.

Books

The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (414 pages) – I loved The Garden of Good and Evil when it came out so when I saw this one, I had to get it. He writes compellingly and beautifully about Venice in this book and he made me want to go there and live for a year or ten. After reading this, a week trip to Italy including one day in Venice would just not be enough. I highly recommend it.

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne (189 pages) – You can download it for free at that site as it’s apparently no longer copyrighted in the States. This was Winnie-the-Pooh’s writer’s only foray into mysteries and he does quite a good job of it. My version had a cool introduction where he explains why he wrote it (for his dad). I think I had read it a few years back, but it apparently pays to get old because I didn’t remember it at all. If you like a quick easy to read mystery, and have an spare hour or two, do yourself a favor and check it out.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (410 pages) – If you do a search of A Tale of Two Cities in goggle, it’ll pull up a whole bunch of links where you can read it for free. Who knew? Anyway, my SIL had lent me this book years ago as it is her favorite book and I thought it was time to read it and give it back to her. It was perfect timing because she had just decided she wanted to re-read it and had forgotten she had lent it to me. My only previous foray into Dickens had been in college when I read Hard Times. I liked it, much more than I thought I would, but just hadn’t gotten around to anything else by him. After read Tale, I thought I would try Bleak House, but it’s mother huge and I’m not sure I can handle that much Dickens so soon.

Plum Lovin’ by Janet Evanovich (164 pages) – This was a Valentine’s novella between the numbers of the Stephanie Plum series. It was amusing.

If I Live To Be 100 by Neenah Ellis (256 pages) – One of my bosses lent me this book and it was so cool. This project started out as an NPR project and she turned it into a book. She interviewed a bunch of centenarians and wow, it made me feel that growing 100 would be cool. I loved this book.

The Ghost of Blackwood Hall by Carolyn Keene (178 pages) – I hated this particular story of the Nancy Drew series when I read it as a kid and it’s probably the only one of the original stories (for me the originals only go up to #56) that I never re-read. I liked it this time around. I think the problem the first time around was that it was a tad scary – ghosts and all – but I liked it well enough this time around. I don’t know that it’ll ever be one of my favorites, but it was a good story.

The Clue of the Leaning Chimney by Carolyn Keene ( 176 pages) – It’s Nancy Drew. I think that says it all. I loved the series as a kid, and still do.

The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (145 pages including introduction and notes by David G. Pitt and John Dennis Duffy) – My Shakespeare is woefully inadequate. I know I’ve read Hamlet, but that’s the only one I can say for certain, although I think I’ve read another one. It was cool to see all the famous quotes in their preferred context and it was a quick easy read.


Movies

I watched a fair amount of movies this month, so I’m not sure I’m going to link to all of them. I’m feeling a tad lazy.

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) (N) – (83%) – Some incredible performances in this movie – Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell – Wow. If you haven’t seen it, and have even the slightest interest in the aftermath of WWII, then check it out.

Above All Else: The Everest Dream (1999) (K) – I have been fascinated by Everest and all mountain climbing for over ten years now and have read many books on the subject, classic accounts, more recent ones, etc. So, this movie was a natural for me. It shows your basic insanity that is climbing an 8000 meter mountain.

The Great Escape (1963) (K) – (9r%) – It’s Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Donald Pleasence, etc. It’s classic and if you haven’t seen it, you should do yourself a favor.

The Quiet American (2002) (N) – (89%) – This film shows Vietnam a few years prior to the start of the war and it’s very moving. It’s also based on Graham Greene’s novel of the same name. I think it’s an important film for anybody who wants to know understand Indochina before the Vietnam tragedy.

The Lady Vanishes - One of Hitchcock’s British films and I’ve watched it a number of times, but I never get tired of it.

The 39 Steps - Another of Hitch’s British films and one with the classic Hitch theme of the innocent man being wrongly accused. Another good one.

Star Wars: A New Hope - I hate having to call it A New Hope. I should say Star Wars and everybody should know that I mean the first one and by the first one, I mean when it came out. It’s classic, although not quite in the same league as a Hitchcock classic, but it is the first sci-fi I ever liked.

Ice Age II: The Meltdown (2006) (N) – (56%) – I have to agree with the 56% actually, I loved the original Ice Age, but this one was not as much fun. I had trouble getting interested until about 30 minutes from the end. Not exactly riveting, although some of it was amusing. I’d say kids would probably like it.

Stargate (1994) (N) – (43%) - As you all know I’ve gotten sucked into the TV series Stargate SG-1 and since it was based on this movie, I figured I’d check into it. It was okay. This would be an example of the TV offshoot being much much much better than the original movie.

Pretty In Pink - It was on Lifetime or something one Saturday and realised I hadn’t seen it in forever and then that evening I found it at Target for about $7, so I picked it up and watched it again. It was nice to see what was deemed either unsuitable or unnecessary for television.

The Devil’s Advocate (1997) (F) – (71%) – Wow, I can’t tell you how much I did not care for this movie. Al Pacino was icky, beyond belief icky. And for heaven’s sake, it had Keanu Reeves it!!!! Unless you like scary-ass, icky satan movies with Al Pacino making icky motions with his tongue, give this one a miss.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) (N) – (92%) – I held off seeing this movie for a long time, I guess mostly because I didn’t know what it was about. I finally put it in my queue after seeing the cast on Ellen and a little snippet of the film. I’m glad I did as I liked it a lot. I laughed out loud at the ending.

Joy Division: Under Review (2006) (N) – Technically, not a movie as it was a bunch of British music types talking about Joy Division. If you’re not a fan, you probably wouldn’t be interested, but as I’m pretty much insane when it comes to Joy Division, I loved it and found out that there’s a new book out about Joy Division. So exciting to us Joy Division geeks.

Babel (2006) (N) – (68%) – I have to say that I agree with this percentage, because I didn’t get the big deal. In fact, I pretty much could live without ever seeing it again and that’s saying a lot considering how often I’ll rewatch movies. I read a mini review where they compared it to Crash from last year – they preferred Babel. I preferred Crash.

Finding Neverland (2004) (K) – (84%) – Johnny Depp…with prettier hands than me…need I say more?

Don Juan DeMarco (1995) (K) – (71%) – Johnny Depp playing the world’s greatest lover…need I say more? Although I have to say that I’m not quite sure why Marlon Brando is considered to be such a great actor. And who really wants to imagine him in bed with Faye Dunaway???

Qué viva México (1930) (N) – This was Sergei Eisenstein’s only North American film and from all accounts it cured him of ever working here again. It’s a beautifully shot film and that link does a much better job of explaining the film than I ever could.

Serenity (2005) (K) – Yeah, I know I just watched this in October, but since I rewatched the entire season in January, I felt like I hadn’t completed the saga without watching the movie. I’m still pissed about the people they killed off.

Reno 911: Miami (2007) (Theatre) – (37%) – The Libertarian wanted to see this and I went along for the fun of it, even though I had never seen a single second of the TV show. It is - apparently - 84 minutes (I thought it was only 70 minutes) of pure ridiculousness. This is not high-brow film aiming to engage your mind or make you think. And sometimes thinking is not what you want to do.

It’s now March 7, because as you can see, I decided to link which took me a lot longer to write this. I wasn’t as lazy as I planned on being. I had a really good weekend which involved the symphony on Friday night with the Libertarian, dancing Saturday night for four straight hours, and then I blew my Lenten resolution on Sunday by going to church after which I picked up my friend Soyon and headed off to Lansing where The World’s Greatest Yarn Store was having a massive sale. Sadly, the sale started on Thursday so pickin’s were slim, not that that stopped me from finding plenty of yarn to add to my stash. And yesterday to add to my excitement I picked up the new Stooges CD in anticipation of the concert on April 13 (yup, I got tix to see Iggy), and a new Iggy boxset with five previously unreleased complete live concerts from 1977-1981, some un-recorded songs, interviews with band members, unpublished photos from each tour on stage and backstage and two tour stickers.

And I think that’s enough for one post! Hope everybody is doing well.

Big Shot

For Valentine's Day Loopy listed the first 10 songs that her iPod played that had the word Love in them. Well, I've been listening to my iPod since 6:00 a.m. (except for the 2 hours and 45 minutes I had to go to another building for a meeting) and my iPod has only played four songs that even came close to having that particular word in them and one of them I'm pretty sure doesn't count because "the word" is only implied in the title and another doesn't count because it's in the band's name. The first two songs were played yesterday. Anyway, this is what I have so far:

Let Me Love You – Peter Murphy
A Lover Sings – Billy Bragg
We Care A Lot – Faith No More (I obviously took massive liberties on this one)
The Purest Blue – Love & Rockets
Unlovable – The Smiths (probably not in keeping with the overall feeling of the assignment, but as you can see, I'm desperate)
Being In Love – Tijuana Strip Club
Welcome Tomorrow – Love & Rockets
No Big Deal – Love & Rockets (Thank God for Love & Rockets)

After I posted this yesterday, I waited for one last song before shutting down and heading to the gym and got

Such Unlikely Lovers - Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach

That's it. Perhaps my iPod says something about me??? ;-)

Update on the work cafeteria: They have not ruined their streak of chili con carne yet. And last night I dreamt about the cafeteria at my old building, something I wouldn't have bet money on ever happening. When I tell people at work about it, they all look askance and say, "That's really sad, because it wasn't good."